Pascaline Dargant (photographer) and Caroline Denervaud (performer and plastic artist) met in Paris and share the Swiss nationality.Their duo based on a strong artistic complicity was born in 2014 from a photo shoot, as Pascaline photographed Caroline rehearsing a choreography.The Heidies work within a defined framework - unit of time, place and action - they explore gesture and material to extract a moment of delicate balance.

The Heidies’ photography captures the spontaneity and innocence of the fragile instant when control is loose and everything can be recreated with one step or movement. Faces hidden, the Heidies’ imagery builds around short stories that the viewer can compose himself. Exploring the way forms meet, they celebrate how a creative spring or gesture can transform space, the significance of a single step or natural movement in at once re-creating a new space or non-space.

What inspired you to leave Switzerland and settle in Paris? Caroline: I followed a friend. I was in London for a year to study dance and after a bad injury couldn’t dance anymore. Paris was an opportunity to rebound, to explore something else elsewhere.

Pascaline: I settle to my grandmother’s house at the age of 18 to practice theatre classes in Paris. I went 5 days a week to watch movies, theatre, exhibitions… and I’m here since 25 years!

What inspired you to begin collaborating in your artistic practices? Pascaline: I’m very fond of Caroline's work. she is so sensitive, intelligent and delicate. One day she asked me to shoot her dancing. Joing our universe was very interesting. We decided to explore together.

Caroline: I wanted to say something through my body, dancing. I asked Pascaline if she could take pictures of that performance. Her eyes were so delicate and careful! Feeling that respect and freedom in front of someone is rare… It was our first story and we decided to create and explore together.

How did you conceive of the Heidies as a collaborative artistic endeavor? Within a defined framework of units of time, place and action, we explore gesture and material to extract a moment of delicate balance.

And what inspired the name behind it? Heidi is a little girl who lives with her grandfather in the Swiss montains. Her character belongs to the Swiss cultural heritage. We share in our craft her values: freedom, simplicity and authenticity. And we like the prononciation close to "ideas".

Where do you find inspiration in daily life and your environment?Caroline: The inspiration comes as an envy to be and create together. It starts, as Pascaline says, from a subtle, little exchange first. The inspiration comes during the shooting too, as we are together, in the place and let go.

Pascaline: We are very close friends. We talk every day. Only a word, an image, a sensation even a smell can initiate new artistic desires.

How have The Heidies developed over the past few years? Pascaline: We started our artistic collaboration as a joy to meet and create together. We recently worked for a fashion brand, the idea of exploring for others is exiting and we’ll continue to shoot and perform for fashion in autumn.

Caroline: We know now the simplest is the stronger, the more spontaneous the purer. And we know each other better and better!

Tell us about the process behind your shared practice and this new body of work specifically?There’s no rules. We let the energy and the moment decide, when together in a place. Pascaline shoots and Caroline performs, but we can also perform together. The final selection is made together and Pascaline works on the pictures.

How are your individual practices reflected in The Heidies?Even if we each other have our own part (Pascaline takes the pictures, works on the post production; Caroline moves and selects the cloths for a shooting) the creation comes through a constant exchange. We evolve in symbiosis.

What part of your art process is most exciting to you? The moment when the shooting, inspiration, "letting go" and action intertwine into one. And then viewing the images afterwards is always exciting.

Who are some contemporaries or figures in art history who have inspired your work?We have many common inspirations: Francesca Woodman, Bill Viola, Helena Almeida, Mark Borthwick, Viviane Sassen, Yves Klein, Nikki de St Phalle.